Why Work with Authentic Manufacturing Co.?

1. We are an American company

Authentic Manufacturing Co.’s parent company, Uniq Customs LLC. is headquartered in the good ole’ midwestern beautiful (during the summer) state of Michigan!  We also own a Wholly Owned Foreign Enterprise (WOFE) in China, Pakistan, and Vietnam.

2. We have long standing, exclusive contracts with manufacturers working with the world’s best brands

We have invested years building trust and forging solid relationships through investments in every factory we work with. These are factories working with brands, such as Nike, Samsung, Louis Vuitton, 3M, and Johnson & Johnson.  These are factories you will not find on Alibaba and have too much to risk if they are caught stealing IP.

3. Low Price Guarantee

A typical client who wants to manufacture their own branded hats thinks they can get a cheaper price by working directly with a hat factory, rather than working with a company like ours.  However, they will be surprised to find out we are cheaper.  It’s a bit arrogant of us to claim that we can offer the lowest price on any product produced.  However, it’s not far from the truth.

1. Most of the time, a factory which claims to be a hat factory normally only does the sewing of the hat, but they still outsource embroidery, printing, and materials from other factories and often mark-up the price.

2. We are able to batch orders from multiple clients together in order to produce them simultaneously, thus saving money on labor.

For example, Client A and Client B are both ordering 200 snapback hats.  To our factory, this is a 400 piece order, thus the price is lower than a 200 piece order.  In manufacturing, the general rule of thumb is that the more you order, the cheaper the price per piece, but you already know that.

3.  We have shares in most of the factories we work with and own much of the machinery.  This in turn gives us access to the accounting of the factory.  We know the true cost of production of the each component. We are going to offer the true price even without pooling (or batching) client orders together, since we make our margin from the factory-side.

4. Multiple Factories

Most factories focus on making one small part of an entire product.  That means that most factories do not make the entire product themselves.  They outsource the components to other factories, which only make those components

Each product we manufacture is not made at one factory or in one building.   We use multiple factories to take advantage of each supplier’s expertise, which makes it almost impossible for any one factory to know how to make your finished product.  Even if they wanted to steal your product idea, they would have to start from scratch. Since we own shares in most of the factories we work with, we can monitor this more easily.

5. Americans on the Ground in China

Even with taking the above precautions, we must have our own employees on site during production to ensure quality and protection of IP.  It’s glorified babysitting, but it’s absolutely necessary.  If you are blindly ordering your products from a Chinese factory you found on Alibaba and do not plan to go to China for 2-3 months to oversee production yourself, you are inviting a multitude of problems.  This could include IP theft, use of lower grade materials which save the factory production costs (cutting corners), and quality issues that are not caught early on in the production process, thus rendering the final production order unacceptable (after 2 months of production, your product is faulty),

6. 20+ years of manufacturing experience

Our team on the ground are not newbies in this game.  They have worked in supply-chain management since the dawn of the industrial age in China.  They speak Chinese and they have sourced for the biggest brands (Yes, Nike, Samsung, and LV are some of those brands.  They know the tricks of the trade and will work with you directly every step of the way.  There may come a time when you want to open your own factory in China or Vietnam.  We can help you with that.

7. Legal Protection

Believe it or not, China is has changed their legal attitude towards patent, trademark, and copyright infringement. Since 2015, U.S. and other non-Chinese companies won 81 percent of their patent cases, This is about the same victory rate as Chinese companies suing other Chinese companies for patent-infringement

We have our own legal team on retainer in China

We have dealt with IP theft many times and have paid a price for it.  We learned from our early mistakes and have taken legal precautions to protect our own IP as well as the IP of our clients.  We can afford to pay the legal cost of

We have legally binding contracts with factories

Every factory that we work with has signed a legally-binding Chinese NDA to prevent them from producing any of our clients designs without their permission.  The opportunity cost for our factories to steal your designs is far too risky, because they would not only be sued, but they would lose our hundreds of thousands of dollars of business.

Patents / Trademarks / Copyrights consulting

We are not lawyers, but we can help you file your own patents and trademarks.  For complicated designs and products, we may direct you to our own lawyers in China, whom you will work with directly.  China Law Blog is also a great starting point for learning about your legal options in China.  We have summarized the most important points here, but as your company grows, things will get more complicated, so feel free to contact us if you would like to be put in touch with the lawyers we have used for 20 years.  They are always happy when we send them a new client.

8. Build Your Own Production Lines

Many large multinational companies, such as Adidas have the money to build their own production lines in China.  They have invested millions of dollars in this.  If you business needs to make tens of thousands of pieces of one product, it may be a good option to build your own de-facto factory within one of ours.  This is a bespoke service we offer to our larger clients.  Please contact-us if you are interested.

Conclusion

Save yourself the hassle, and work with an American partner like us, who can protect your IP and guarantee you the lowest production cost in China.  It’s really a no-brainer.